A tale of three villages

The footfalls now thinning the club lights are dimming Climbing rickety stairs up Dhobi Talaos World War Ibuilt Jer Mahal I dodge loose wires and startle raftered pigeons in this chawls maze of coors or kudds Rental rooms Goan villages reserved from the 1850s for their migrants to Bombay these dorms sheltered scriveners sailors cooks and musiciansMelody embedded in the Catholic DNA Furtados at over 150 years and CF Rodricks at 90 are Jer Mahals music men Behind Castle Hotel in Jambul Wadi offers valueformoney fish thalis Kind club elders were our parents in these homes away from home says Felix Dias He directs me to more decrepit coors in labyrinthine lanes off Jagannath Sunkersett Road where his press David amp Company has printed prayer books and wedding cards since 1953Alice and Floyd Gracious at the Viegas Pork Shop opened in 1940s Sonapur by their grandparents The siblings have taken over from their father Gene who ran this family business for over forty years PicAshish RajeTo explore the vicinitys villages Sonapur Dabul and Cavel I dive into the Dickensian alleys of Sonapur earlier cemetery turf around Our Lady of Dolours Church A colourful first stop is Wellington Terrace on the street saluting physicianmayor Simon Fernandes Sniffing curry on the boil I meet residents who miss neighbours moved to Orlem and Borivli This colony was packed people slept in landing corridors recalls engineer Simon Lobo Till the 1970s our wadi hosted Republic Day dances on a wooden floor and Church held Latin massesDown 1st Dhobi Talao Lane Snowflake does serve Goan delicacies despite bare glass cases suggesting otherwise On 3rd Marine Street or Christmas Tree Lane some soak in susegado and swigs of Auntys rotgut Most however kneel devoutly in Dolours Church awaiting postservice banter at Edward Restaurant though Paris Bakery is the stellar Irani counter of Sonapur Lane aka Dukker Galli postally Cawasji Hormasji Road Opposite Viegas Pork Shop attracts Sunday throngs In the 1940s proprietors Melanie and Victor Viegas rose with the sun in Bandra reaching before the Dolours dawn mass ended at 630 am and churchgoers poured in for fresh chopsAlso growing up in Pius X Mansion hockey champ Vivienne DSylva represented India internationally She stands fourth from right as Captain of the 1963 Sophia College team whose members included the future Miss World 1966 Reita Faria standing last row centreAt Kaizer Building brothers Carey and Thomas DSouza manage C DSouza the cafecumconfectionery from the 1950s introduced by grandparents Caridade and Maria Ruzai Her name prompted Marosa Restaurant in 1947 Fort The family trusted customers to pay only for savouries and sweets they consumed from a platter Marosa shut bestsellers in the Sonapur outlet are bibinca bolinhas dodol doce fruit tarts and plum cakeLikening this precinct to the 1930s Bronx Adriano Pinto has recorded how the Dolours priest placed a loudspeaker in C DSouzas to drown conversation during sermons That resulted in coffeetalk rising many decibels disturbing the vicar himself Women with sleeveless dresses without head scarves were publicly berated Khomeini must have learnt his statecraft from Sonapur priestsAgnelo Rodrigues president of The Goan Institute in Dabul With him is sports star AlexSilveira from the same parish selected for the 1956 Olympics Excelling at 400 metres sprint and hurdles events at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games too Sequeira has had the privilege of meeting athlete legends Emilia Zatopek and Sir Roger Bannister first to break the 4minute mile PicBipin KokatePast Joseph DSouzas shop making Holy Communion candles Tony Pereira points to where his father Camilo cut Johnny Walker and Mehmood threepieces and safari suits for tycoon Pranlal Bhogilal at St Mathias Tailors Sao Mathias on Divar island in Old Goa was Camilos village Feet away Rosario Alphonso of Vienna Hotel says Weve sold great vindaloo sorpotel and beef tongue His grandparents from Aldona ran their restaurant with rooms from 1940 This currently provides sixroom lodging aloneKonkani tiatr stars Anthony Mendes and C Alvares lent Sonapur sparkle while Chris Perry was Dabuls jazzman Waking he smoked a cigarette and tooted his trumpet before any ablutions Goans East Indians and Mangaloreans came to Dabul in Thakurdwar and Cavel in Chira Bazaar probably preceding Sonapur They settled satellitelike around Bhuleshwar site of the cathedral whose later avatar was Colabas Holy Name CathedralBand bops sounded daylong from Chris home facing 148yearold Saint Francis Xavier Church with a mismatched 344yearold bell Cast in 1674 by Hiram Tavarres Bocarro this seventh bell of St Josephs Church Bassein fell silent with the Maratha siege in 1739 The British procured it from the subdued Portuguese and the bell then tolled for over a century in St Thomas Cathedral Journeying to the Bombay Arsenal the sole war survivor bell was gifted in 1883 to Dabul thanks to the Portuguese Vicar General of the NorthEven suburbanites faithfully came to worship in Dabul says crossword ace Joe Albuquerque The octogenarian in Hendre Building opposite hears the bell ring twice daily My church and my puzzles keep me busy he adds jabbing an incomplete grid on his newspaper pageThe church abuts St Sebastians Goan High School which Girgaum boys Jatin Khanna and Ravi Kapoor Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra attended Next door St Annes Girls School overlooks undertaker BF Martyres signboard From 1926 Tumbling into the thin path separating St Sebastians and St Annes Im in Papad Gully Sixty years ago seven Lohana Niwas housewives spun a success story of sustainability their kitchen skills birthing the Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad cooperativeUrban historian Deepak Rao and his knowledgeable friend CS Pereira retired from the office of the Director General of Police Maharashtra lead the way to what used to be Jagannath Sunkersetts bungalow and the citys first Marathi school for girls Tosa Bakery still kneads pao in Gomes Building from 1938 Chuffed at my rare chance to guide Deepak to a corner he doesnt know we reach a wonderful home for the aged run by the 150yearold Society of Our Lady of Piety every inch the welcomingly clean facility it should beAhead of these cool courtyards across Dabuls 100yearold Church Restaurant The Goan Institute presents exquisite architecture outside and in A cantilevered balcony with perforated wooden balustrade skirts firstfloor Loyola Hall hired for social functions The Institut Lusitano Indien here is supposed to have started as a credit societyAnd then comes Cavel derived from Kolvar hamlet of the Kolis In a halfhidden marvellous microcosm simply dubbed 191 the quarters plot number chatty Isabela sells eggs and vinegar ensconced in the J M Rodrigues stall Beyond the fish market logistics expert Pierre Menezes shows where Julio Ribeiros colonialstyle childhood home was and Pedrus ruled as a Goan goodies and gossip addaDiscovering the bubonic plague of 1896 and inoculating 18000 residents Pierres greatgrand uncle Dr Acacio Viegas has his statue near Metro On the street naming him less than 200 parishioners left visit the Church of Our Lady of Health flanked by Popes Town and Bishops Town compounds Pierre grew up in Popes Town fronted by 1782opened Barretto School onetime feeder nursery to St Xaviers School His cinematographer brother Andre ushers us into their mothers interestingly restored ancestral Bishops Town house Rosary Cottage once the first Carmelite conventBrowsing I find a 1938 handbill for Belle of Cavel performed at Bhangwadis Princess Theatre Cavelites like Phantom Revival bassist Claude Dcosta rocked in jam sessions on verandas Carol crooning done postXmas brought jousting to jollity rivalry to revelry Fierce feuds at New Years Eve judged which compound stacked more hay local lads stole from passing Victorias to burn an old man effigy The campfire highlight was the parody of a song by Vaudeville and Broadway comedians Edward Gallagher and Al Shean Every original stanza closed with a punchline by Gallagher after which Shean sang Absolutely Mister Gallagher and Gallagher replied Positively Mister Shean Compound residents like musician Ernie Flanagan substituted topical verses to that tune ribbing residents about their years goingsonVernon Valladares of Popes Towns DeMonte Building became the first Indian Navy officer elevated to Commodore rank In Pius X Mansion live Olga Collaco whose baton the Cantata Choir follows with her soprano daughter Natasha Olga would direct the church adult choir and Maureen Stanton from adjacent Catholic Library Building the juniors Today Kevin DSouza of Dabul conducts the popular Singspirators drawn mainly from all three parishes plus Khotachi Wadi in GirgaumTwo floors above the Collacos hockey champ Vivienne DSylva played for India from 1967 to 1974 She describes the annual 13hour Adoration venerating the Holy Eucharist The Blessed Sacrament was led in a procession from the church Flower girls in white dresses with red velvet sashes walked alongside the Holy Eucharist the priest carried under a canopy On their arms hung basketsful of petals they kissed and threw towards the monstrance Each town created altars to hold the monstrance My Mum worked on the beautiful brocade altar cloth with Mrs ChavesFormer banker Myrna Chaves smiles recollecting the scene of her mother sewing companionably with Mrs DSylva Both sets of grandparents in Pius X Mansion sparked her parents building romance Her maternal grandfather Dr Joseph Alban DSouza mayor in 1945 cofounded Catholic Gymkhana and the Bombay division of St John Ambulance Brigade A member of the Constituent Assembly representing Bombay to write the Constitution of India he was among the free nations first MPs His son Dr Joseph Leon DSouza the 1967 mayor was the first Goan in the Maharashtra cabinet appointed State Minister for Health and ProtocolSmall things spelt excitement vendors trundling in from Vasai on bullock carts with watermelons and strung onions the lovely yellow carpet of dry flowers our compound datura shed in May says Myrna We were a middleincome locality with progressive spirit But need more cohesiveness for community strengthAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes monthly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiagmailcomwwwmehermarfatiacomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates